LIP SERVICE

Ken Lipshez, a member of the CT High School Coaches Hall of Fame, has been covering local sports in central Connecticut since 1992. He is also past president and treasurer of the CT Sports Writers' Alliance, which has staged the prestigious Gold Key Dinner annually since 1939 (see ctsportswriters.org). Ken worked both as an administrator (1981-88) and a beat reporter for Eastern League baseball (1996-2010). Aside from sports, his passions include American history, classic movies (pre-1970), the Grateful Dead and 1960s TV shows, particularly westerns.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

NEW BRITAIN –
Disappointment was the foremost emotion that gripped New Britain High boys
basketball coach Todd Stigliano as he emerged from the season’s final postgame
discussion.

But other
thoughts pervaded his mind. He talked about deep respect for Ridgefield, which
had just ousted the Hurricanes from the Class LL tournament with a 63-57 overtime
victory, and the Tigers’ Division I-bound star Kurt Steidl.

He also spoke of
the offseason commitment that he and as many as nine returning juniors would
have to make in order for New Britain to make a deeper tournament run.

The respect for
Steidl, the 6’6 guard who heads to the University of Vermont next fall, echoed
through the atmosphere at Chick Shea Gym. His tangible contributions were 31
points and 20 rebounds, but his greatest asset cannot be defined by numbers.

“[Monday] night in the fourth quarter, he had
13 or 14 against Greenwich and they quoted him in the paper as saying, ‘I knew
it was my senior year and I had to take over the game.’ Tonight, he just willed
it,” Stigliano said. “He did whatever had to be done for his team to come out
with a win. As sad as it is for me, you have to give him credit.”

The eight-seeded
Hurricanes (18-6) were in prime position to advance to the quarterfinals.

A three-pointer
by Michael Robinson – New Britain’s only one of the game – and a free-throw by
Craven Johnson gave the ’Canes a 51-44 lead with 5:21 left in regulation. But
the next four possessions brought three turnovers and Daequone Clark missing
the front end of a one-and-one.

They still held
a three-point lead as the time remaining slipped under a minute. When Steidl
handled near the top of the key, he was double-teamed, but the Tigers deftly
beat the overload. Two passes around the perimeter gave Jeff Racy an open look
from beyond the arc in the left corner and the game was tied with 31 seconds
left.

Stigliano called
timeout with 20.2 seconds remaining. Annuel Saint Juste dribbled about 15
seconds away and unleashed a 25-foot jumper that caromed off the rim. It wasn’t
what Stigliano dialed up.

“He’s obviously
a good shooter and he’s hit a lot of buzzer-beaters,” Stigliano said. “He waits,
waits and hopes the [defender] backs up a step and he can hit at NBA range. But
no, that’s not what we discussed. I wanted him to get the ball but I wanted him
to get it going to the rim.

“You want to be
aggressive, try to get something underneath, you can get a rebound or try to
get somebody to commit a foul. … It’s not his fault. He’s trying to help his team.
It just didn’t work out that way.”

Overtime
featured a Ridgefield parade to the foul line. Steidl went 7-for-9 from the
stripe and the ’Canes offense went stagnant. They turned the ball over twice
and misfired on all five of their field-goal tries. Ridgefield’s trapping 1-3-1
zone – a defense New Britain rarely encountered – effectively collapsed on
Johnson and Hyman in the paint and walled off Saint Juste from impacting the
outcome from long distance.

“I feel
inadequate dealing with that 1-3-1,” Stigliano said. “I feel like I didn’t get
them to understand what I wanted to have happen and we got stagnant. We couldn’t
figure it out. We couldn’t get the ball where we wanted to get it. We didn’t do
a good job moving the basketball.”

But Steidl was
the story. He committed his fourth foul with 4:36 left in the third quarter and
Ridgefield ahead 32-31. The Tigers initially expanded their lead to six in
their star’s absence but the ’Canes ignited their transition game and ended the
quarter with an 11-0 run.

Steidl’s fifth
foul never came. He scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the fourth
quarter and dominated the extra period.

“I just wanted
to win this game so bad, I had to be smarter on defense and smarter on offense by
not going into charges,” Steidl said. “I was just being a smarter player so I
could be out on the court with my teammates and we could get the win.”

“They’re really
athletic at every position,” Ridgefield coach Carl Charles said. “We knew they
had a strong inside game. You could see evidence of that the way they attacked
the basket. I thought they’d have better perimeter shooting.”

Robinson had six
assists but was unable to get the open looks he had Monday against Staples.
Clark had 10 points in his final game. Kevin Tirado, the only other senior, had
two points and played aggressive defense in reserve.